American Jamstand: a 4th of July jam and other tales of the flood

It feels like it’s been raining for days… oh wait, it HAS been raining for days! And days and days and days. But I’ve kept myself occupied with various and sundry activities such as:

• mysterious goings-on at Dovetail that, while I am not at liberty to discuss, are VERY exciting indeed

• Steve teaching me how to homebrew, specifically this imitation of Bell’s Hopslam that went a little crazy in the pot

• top gal pal and birthday twin Melinda showing me Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market in Decatur for the first time and me going APESHIT over the tubs of spices for 88 cents

It’s been a not-too-sucky week for the most part! I’ll be heading to Edisto tomorrow for a holiday weekend with Kirsten and some of her gal pals. You know it’s gonna be a good time when everyone involved is super into food. I drove down to Lane Orchards this afternoon to stock up on some fresh seasonal peaches to take with me as my contribution. What I did NOT remember was that it was their July 4th Festival today. Poor planning, Melanie. So I parked in the middle of the field and schlepped up to the madhouse that was the store. There were festive locals and rude tourists alike. Lady who opened the box in my cart and removed some of my peaches while I was standing right there – you are on my shit list and I will find you. You do not manhandle another person’s produce after it has been claimed. This is not the Wild West.

I was planning on just getting a couple of quart baskets, but the lovely young lad at the store informed me that a 1/2 bushel box was only $20, and I would be paying just as much for less than half the quantity if I went with the quarts. SOLD.

Debatably good decision.

I carried my half bushel plus some beautiful fresh-picked blackberries back to my car, which I found firmly stuck down in the mud of the field upon my return. After a lot of wheel spinning (sorry, white minivan parked next to me…), I drove back home through what looked suspiciously like an almost-tornado.

Bring me Bill Paxton and a $5 Walmart belt.

I used the sinfully delicious blackberries along with the wonderfully fragrant Thai basil that I found at YDFM (for a DOLLAR) to make yet another round of summer jam.

LOOKADEM BERRIES!

Blackberry Basil Jam

• 2 pints blackberries
• 1/2 cup Thai basil simple syrup (we’ve covered this before…), made with ~1 cup basil leaves
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp powdered pectin
• squirt o’ lime juice
• extra fresh Thai basil leaves for extra basil power!

I mixed the pectin and extra sugar together and sprinkled it over the crushed berries while I was making the simple syrup to macerate them a little. Extra juices are always good. Boil the fruit and simple syrup, and if you want extra basil flavor, throw the whole leaves in near the end. Thai basil is so good. It’s more fragrant than sweet basil and has an almost licorice-y taste to it. Look for the bright purple stems and buds. I adore it and can never seem to find it anywhere. Thanks, YDFM!

Once the jam is good and fragrant, remove the shriveled whole leaves and jar it up! Seeds included because I love them, but you could strain them out if you like.

Happy birthday, America! Go drink a beer. Look out for updates from Edisto if we stop eating long enough to get online.

Also, I’ve joined Bloglovin. Go here if you want to follow along via them!

Jalapeño Juleps: Sin or Sinfully Delicious?

The Derby may be over, but summer has only just begun. And summer in the South necessarily means mint juleps.

I love mint juleps. Love. I might judge you if you don’t share my feelings. It might have something to do with bourbon being my favorite form of alcoholic indulgence. Now, there are good juleps and there are terrible juleps, and unfortunately the bad often far outnumber the good. This might have a lot to do with people using shitty bourbon, probably because they know no better. I am lucky in that my main girl, Kirsten, literally got a master’s degree in bourbon. She has pointed me towards some of the tastiest (and sadly underappreciated) bourbons I have ever put in my mouth. I owe her multiple people’s first-born children for this.

Because Kirsten has got this ish on lockdown already, there really is no need to turn this into a “how to make a mint julep” post.  I asked her today, because I have been told such a thing in the past, if it was considered appropriate to add a splash of soda to the top of a julep. Her response, and I quote: “NO SODA SPLASH ARE YOU A MONSTER.” There you have it, folks. Bourbon. Mint. Sugar. Ice. That is all. Seriously, get your butts over to Chronderlust already and check out Kirsten’s post on how to make the world’s best julep —> here <—  I would not lead you astray. Today I decided to do something a little different. I threw caution to the wind and made a jalapeño simple syrup to use instead of sugar. And fuck me but did it turn out HOT. I am still a julep purist, don’t get me wrong, but this added a fun little kick that would be good with hearty foods or salty snacks.

hot hot hot!

To make a simple syrup, all you need to do is bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a boil with whatever add-in you want, then let it steep off the heat for 20-30 minutes, cool, strain out the chunky bits, and store indefinitely in the fridge in a sealed container. I’ve made ginger, a variety of herbs, and now jalapeño. I used 2 chopped peppers, seeds included, and steeped for 20 minutes. I would suggest using 2 tablespoons TOPS of the syrup per mint julep. Because I am a bad Southerner, I do not have my own julep cup yet. Instead, I used a jelly jar, which I deem to be an acceptable substitute. Enjoy outside in the sunshine, preferably with good friends and equally good music.

Heaven.